Today I am shedding a little "lyte" on drugs. In the midst of all the healthcare brouhaha, a study has been released showing that abuse of drugs used to treat ADHD in teens has skyrocketed. This increase mirrors the increase in the amount of prescriptions that have been written.
Now, teenagers abusing drugs is not a new phenomena. But teenagers abusing totally legal, doctor approved drugs is a new twist. It is one thing when you have to find a pusher to get high, it's another when your pusher is your doctor. Teens that do not have ADHD get a high off the drugs used to treat it. Kids who are prescribed the drugs can make nice living off of selling their drugs.
Teens who abuse ADHD drugs run a risk of serious health consequences like high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, and other side effects. Four people have died from it. If it was a herb that was causing these side effects, there would be an outcry and a call to remove the substance from the market. In fact, properly prescribed and administered medication kills about 100,000 people every year. But no one seems to care.
Why the deafening silence? The pharmaceutical lobby outnumbers our representatives by about 3 to 1 in our nation's capital. They contribute heavily to the campaigns, and have enormous resources to put to use to keep the carnage off the radar. It doesn't help that pharmaceutical drugs are advertised on TV.
And what is conspicuously absent in the healthcare debate is our addiction to legally prescribed drugs. Over 50% of all Americans take some type of prescribed medicine. I am not saying we are a nation of junkies, but the fact is, we are. And we are turning our kids into addicts as well.
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